Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 6 in E minor

Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York conducted by Leopold Stokowski

Recorded on February 21, 1949, in Columbia's 30th Street Studio, New York City.  Issued in August, 1949, as Columbia Masterworks set MM-838 (records 12977-D through 12980-D), and on LP as ML-4214, coupled with Messiaen's "L'Ascension" (Four Symphonic Meditations) which was also issued on 78-rpm as Set MM-893.  The side and matrix information:

Side 1 (XCO 41011): First movement (Allegro), part 1

Side 2 (XCO 41012): First movement, part 2; Second movement (Moderato); part 1

Side 3 (XCO 41013): Second movement, part 2

Side 4 (XCO 41014): Second movement, part 3; Third movement (Scherzo: Allegro vivace), part 1

Side 5 (XCO 41015): Third movement, part 2

Side 6 (XCO 41016): Third movement, part 3; Fourth movement (Epilogue: Moderato), part 1

Side 7 (XCO 41017): Fourth movement, part 2

It will be observed that this side layout preserves the Symphony's continuous-play aspect; this is taken to an extreme on Side 6, on which the last thirteen seconds of the Scherzo are heard leading into the Epilogue.  The Symphony is presented complete in one audio file; the start times of the movements are as follows:

(0:01) Allegro

(7:13) Moderato

(14:05) Scherzo

(20:26) Epilogue

The filler, recorded the same day on matrix XCO 41010 (i.e., immediately before the Symphony), is a slightly abridged version of Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on "Greensleeves."  This received no contemporaneous LP issue, though Columbia did issue it as part of a limited edition LP honoring the New York Philharmonic's 125th anniversary in 1967, "A Festival of Famous Conductors" (BM-13), a compilation  containing, among other things, Toscanini and Mengelberg recordings that presumably derived from early electrical Brunswick originals.

This was the first recording of Vaughan Williams' Sixth Symphony; two days later, HMV recorded Sir Adrian Boult and the London Symphony in a competing version.  It is the only first recording of a Vaughan Williams symphony by a non-British orchestra.